A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the way to the Forum

[Hotdogand6pack]

Anticipation boiled in my chest. Anxiety quivered my in my gloved hands as I gripped the wheel. The LT5 purred away as I awaited the signal from the flag bearer. The green flag unfurled, I hesitantly made my way through the pits. A quick brake check followed by a steering rack check. It was on. Next thing I knew, every car was passing me. That was alright, I would hold no grudge. Mustangs, Camaro's, Nissans, Toyota's, Give it hell, I thought to myself. I've got cold tires, cold brakes, and a complete lack of knowledge of the track. A blank canvas ready to be filled with detail. And so I began driving the course. Every driver passed me by. I assured myself that they would only be allowed this one grace. I studied every turn, every banking, every inch of the track. I returned to the garage, having been passed by the entire field, not discouraged. For I had taken my time to properly learn the track while the rest merely drove it. The second time out I tested the car's limits. I knew what the track had against me, but what I needed to know was how my car handicapped me. I still cannot find that figure. The idea is that my skill combined with my ineptitude must never exceed the mechanical ability of the vehicle. For instance, What I'm doing, combined with how wrong I'm doing it, cannot exceed the vehicle's coefficient of friction otherwise the car goes into the wall. With heart pounding in my chest, I pushed those limits at Watkins Glen. I found that with a certain amount of 'Balls' on my behalf translated into an immense amount of production at the track:

http://youtu.be/fC91ZobfJ8E Chasing down a 2012 boss 302

http://youtu.be/E2P2TRixCdw Chasing down a charger srt8, mustang gt, and Shelby gt500

The Z never let me down, no matter how hard I pushed it.

[Dynomite]

You done very good :cheers:

Nice bit of driving....seems you let it all hang out going after the GT500 :D

I was leaning in my seat around every curve :sign10:

Excellent Video :thumbsup:

Your introduction was pretty good also :p

[mgbrv8]

Great!!!


Dave

[SteelBlueZR1]

Awesome smooth driving. Amazing how you blew past the Mustang!

[LancePearson]

Nice job....

[efnfast]

I didn't see you get passed by a single car on the "Boss" run. Nice, looks like fun.

[LancePearson]

Was this an HPDE with a coach with you in the car? Looked like a lot of third gear with occasional shifts to fourth. Was the coach limiting how aggressive you could drive the Z while you "learned?"

I thought you did well if this is an early track experience for you.

Lance Pearson

[scottfab]

What tires were you on?
What speed did you hit on the straight away?

[XfireZ51]

What tires were you on?
What speed did you hit on the straight away?

Yes, do tell.

[ZZZZZR1]

Now that is a great video!!!!!

Tell us more about your car!!!!!

Thanks for posting!

:cheers:

David

[LancePearson]

You can see we are ALL interested and living vicariously with you in the driver's seat. Thanks so much for posting and more details as asked for will be thoroughly enjoyed by all of us.

Good man and good videos. I even looked the course up while watching them. Your Z can be pushed harder than they let you when you are ready for it. Great job sharing among us all who are fellow owners and really, really like things like you did and shared.

Congrats and gracias...now, more details, por favor?

Lance

[LancePearson]

the course as I saw it online Watkins Glen

[LancePearson]

that's the elevation map of the course...here's the course that's online..sorry.

[Bob Eyres]

Wow, thanks for the ride. If you go out again, please post.

That's a great track. Back in the day, (late sixties), we used to sit on the hill and watch Jim Hall battle Bruce McLaren in Group 7. What a show.

Next time, more sound please:D

[Hotdogand6pack]

Sorry for the delay. I've been busy with work and 'Unwinding' from the event.

The event was the June Event Series at the Glen hosted by PhoenixCMR. I would have never even heard of it had it not been for the owner of my company who is an instructor for them and also races NARRA and SCCA events across the country.

Yes, it was an HDPE event, High Performance Driver Education. Supposedly 'non competitive.' My instructor was a highly qualified SCCA race driver named Keith. He is an extremely aggressive driver, as am I. Our personalities matched perfectly as he understood my Z's limitations and he coached me to push them at every opportunity. I think he loved my Z more than me as he races a modified race configured C5 Z06.

My first few sessions were poor. I spent the time learning the track, and the car. I was passed by the entire 25 car field. It is what it is. My instructor was the technical sort, and I as the student was the technical sort. It worked out. Give me the variables to the equation, then I'll solve it. We went through topics as in depth as thrust vectors in turns, suspension reactivity, and torque relative to the liquification of the tires. And that was on the first session, let alone learning where the flag stations were.... He was a 'Nerd' and I soaked up every nugget of knowledge he dropped on me.

This was my very first time on a track of any kind. Beit the Glen or anywhere else. I was new to all of it. We had 4 sessions a day for 2 days. I lost a session and a half to rain the first day, which because I chose to run in the rain taught me a lot about handling at high speeds might have taught me a thing or two about the car.

I was on the track with those that knew the track by heart and those who have been there before and have done this sort of routine. I was the novice in the field of experts. I found myself ahead of the learned curve on the second day after the rain. The video is of two sessions during the second day.

My setup:

Corsa Exhaust
K&N air filter
tossaway centric rotors
Hawk HP+ pads
Vredstein ZR rated tires (mostly worn)
SS braided brake lines from DRM
NGK TR6's from DRM
Haibeck's air plenum support hoops
New Oil Cooler lines from Jerry
Air pump filter from corvette central.

Everything else, stock

[Hotdogand6pack]

Though now, I'm leaning towards hitting the drivetrain with a Fidanza single mass and 4.10's from Marc and a carolina stage3 clutch. And new wheel bearings so I can have working original ones in a box.

[Hotdogand6pack]

Oh, as far as the back straight goes, I short shifted to 4th as 3rd had too much torque for the esses. Too easy to make a mistake. Idea is to have a machine to bring back. Back straight speeds corresponded to my exit speeds out of turn 1 (90 before the esses) If I missed it, about 120-125, if I hit it about 130-135. I'm sure I could hit 150, but for being a first timer, I just didn't have the balls to hit the esses with enough entry speed to carry that kind of exit speed.

[4DSZR1]

Great driving and great videos. You made us all proud of our "old girls" :-)

[SteelBlueZR1]

So, how'd the Vredstein Sessentra's hold up to the track abuse? I've auto crossed with these tires on my Z several times and loved how forgiving and predictable they are + no edge wear or cupping.

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Simply awesome........nothing else to say here. Thanks for sharing!!

[Hotdogand6pack]

The Vredsteins were pretty good. Better than I had expected. They talked a good bit and a progressive bit between 5 and 10% slide. That helped immensely as I was learning to feel the slide in the grip. Didn't have any cupping issues, although I religiously kept my pressures at 38.5 front 38 rear hot. My sidewear was good, though I didn't push it as if I had slicks on.

[Hog]

In these vids, do you have to wait to physically be waved on by the guy in front of you? Just cant see the drivers in front of you in the vid because of the rearview mirrior.
Do they literally give you a hand signal, and pull out of the way to allow you to pass?

Looks really cool. No issues with brake fade or anything? Simply a bone stock 93 ZR-1?
Thanx for the vids.

peace
Hog

[Hotdogand6pack]

All mods are as previously described. I had tossaway centric rotors and hawk HP Plus pads. I did encounter minor brake fade towards the end of the session. A simple matter of rotor temperature. I planned for such, but at first it did come as a surprise. You will notice a heel-toe chirp when I encountered a point where I was going faster in turn one than I expected to because I found my braking insufficient and thus my rev matching was off. I subsequently altered my braking zone to account for such. A mis-timed heel-toe can result in a track insurance claim.

The wave by is recommended, but not required. I choose to abide by such because you truly have no idea what the other guy is thinking or doing. While not required, I wait for it, because I don't want a guy spinning me out at high speeds into a wall, while in a vehicle not race designed for such impacts, because I was passing him and he had no idea I was there. With a wave by, he knows and I know our relative positions and we both are accounting for such in our line. Some people don't adhere to such as if they could buy their car again with no objection to their budget. I unfortunately cannot. I need you to say, 'Hey, I see you, go this way by me, I will adjust my line to not make contact with you.'

[Hog]

All mods are as previously described. I had tossaway centric rotors and hawk HP Plus pads. I did encounter minor brake fade towards the end of the session. A simple matter of rotor temperature. I planned for such, but at first it did come as a surprise. You will notice a heel-toe chirp when I encountered a point where I was going faster in turn one than I expected to because I found my braking insufficient and thus my rev matching was off. I subsequently altered my braking zone to account for such. A mis-timed heel-toe can result in a track insurance claim.

The wave by is recommended, but not required. I choose to abide by such because you truly have no idea what the other guy is thinking or doing. While not required, I wait for it, because I don't want a guy spinning me out at high speeds into a wall, while in a vehicle not race designed for such impacts, because I was passing him and he had no idea I was there. With a wave by, he knows and I know our relative positions and we both are accounting for such in our line. Some people don't adhere to such as if they could buy their car again with no objection to their budget. I unfortunately cannot. I need you to say, 'Hey, I see you, go this way by me, I will adjust my line to not make contact with you.'
On the mods, sorry I didnt see them listed, I will check them out thanks.

On the passing courtesy, what you abide by makes perfect sense to me. One could get into trouble really quick if assuming someone is yielding you right of passage. Thanks for the insight. The audio of your video is just as thrilling as the video. I esp. love the sounds of the tires under hard cornering/braking.

Thanks again.

[Hotdogand6pack]

The video audio was amped up 800x's. Any more and all you hear is the wind. Limitation of the GoPro. A remote firewall mic comes after car components.

[emmvette]

Very nice video and experience. Must have been a ton of fun! Thanks for sharing!